Invest in the Future!

Welcome to the latest edition of Valve User magazine!

In a time of continued doom and gloom in the general economy, it is very refreshing indeed to see the majority of BVAA members thriving and continuing to invest.

I recently had the honour of opening a member’s new facility, which was an amazing 13 times the size of the unit they had just left! This was truly an impressive commitment to the company’s staff and customer-base alike, but also, significantly, to its own future.

Also featured in this issue of Valve User are several members who are investing very significant sums in new plant, machinery and equipment. All encouraging signs.

Crucially however, and most important of all, we also see members investing in their people. Halleluiah to the return of the Engineering Apprenticeship! Long, long overdue in my view. Let us never again allow these vital training programmes to fall into the hands of coenabling bureaucrats!

It is very gratifying to see our industrial sector blossoming, and in some exceptional cases, booming. The key to this of course is, in the main, is the energy sector, and Oil and Gas continues to be the salvation of many a UK company. This is why BVAA is committing itself to an even stronger presence in this sector (see our announcement on page 8).

It is not so very long ago that the British Valve industry was struggling. It followed an extended period of contraction and consolidation, and at times an unseemly customer stampede towards ‘low cost’ suppliers. It required Herculean efforts on the part of some companies to re-shape and make themselves fit for the present, as well as the future. That done, and coupled with the fact that some customers have learned the folly of ‘cheapness without quality’ and that full life-cycle cost is – once more – a major consideration again in purchases, the true value of quality manufacture and service can shine. In this, British engineering companies have no equal.

This issue of Valve User is packed with good new stories – we hope that you enjoy them!

Published: 13th September 2012